By Nancy Trejos Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 25, 2007; Page F01
At 48, Sheryl Bottner is still a renter, and she’s proud of it. In fact, she has no intention of buying a home. Not now. Not ever.
Ask her about the “American Dream” of homeownership, and she is resolute in her response.
“I have heard that from my friends for several years,” she said. “I had to look at them and say, ‘That’s your American dream. That’s not my American dream.’ ”
The run-up in home prices during the real estate boom — and now the housing market’s dramatic reversal — have sparked a new breed of resident in the Washington area, one more commonly found in New York: the renter by choice.
Many of these die-hard renters regard themselves as winners as they watch home prices fall in parts of the country and homeowners struggle to pay their adjustable-rate mortgages.
“I don’t want to get involved in this ‘it’s a sellers’ market, it’s a buyers’ market, the subprime mortgage problem,’ ” said Bottner, who works as a Web communications manager for the National Academy of Sciences.
But have they really won? With the weakening prices and still-low interest rates, economists and housing experts are questioning the wisdom of continuing to sit out of the housing market. Now is the perfect time to buy, they say, because waiting too long might mean a higher interest rate.
See the full article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/23/AR2007112301911.html
